Amazon has filed a patent for a system that detects and records package theft and alerts homeowners. This system generates an alert based on smart home devices such as doorbells with audio and visual capabilities.

The latest patent of Honda relates to a bike that supports variable riding position. This patent relates to a bike that can convert from a sports bike with a crouched riding position to a street bike with an upright position.

Just a few days ago, Apple was granted a patent that described a new technology that could allow the company to offer an in-display fingerprint sensor on the iPhones. Now, yet another patent from the Cupertino tech giant has appeared on the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The new patent is named “fingerprint biometric sensor for generating three-dimensional fingerprint ridge data and related methods”, and it was published on May 7th, 2019. The company originally filed for this patent in September 2016.

The latest patent filed by Dyson relates to an electric vehicle such as an electric car. The patent states that electric car may have a long wheelbase, an interior cabin with reclining seats and an aerodynamic design. The patent also indicates that the company is working on a vehicle with larger wheels to improve efficiency.

A new entry into the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may show where Samsung may think foldable displays and their use in the future are headed. It depicts an electronic product that can lay flat, but can also be folded...into a 3D rectangle. This "display device", therefore, may be a new kind of convertible, although it does not really seem that portable.

The 'brick' form is supported by the tabs, which face inwards. This allows the device to stand independently and display information such as time to the user.

The alleged Samsung patent in its 'block' form. (Source: LetsGoDigital)

Companies and inventors from all over the world filed 174,317 patent applications with the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2018, an increase of 4.6% compared to the previous year. The EPO also published 127 625 granted European patents last year, 21% more than in 2017 and the largest number to date. The rise in European patent applications highlights the global attractiveness of the European market and indicates a strong position for European companies operating in their home territory. Indeed, 47% of patent applications at the EPO last year came from firms based in the 38 EPO member states (Fig.: Origin of patent applications 2018). European companies were at the centre of the increase in patent applications, filing 3.8% more applications in 2018 – their highest growth since 2010. Firms from the 38 EPO member states were responsible for nearly 40% of the total growth registered at the EPO – more than China, Japan and the Republic of Korea combined. (Read more)

In the light of T 1063/18, a recent board of appeal decision, the meeting of the Committee on Patent Law saw the Office and representatives of the 38 EPO member states discuss the patentability of plants obtained by essentially biological processes.

The foldable phones are coming, that much we can all agree on. Multiple manufacturers have announced their intentions to produce a folding device, Google is building support for them into Android, and we’ve even seen the first such phone actually make its way to market in China. At Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month, rumors suggest more announcements are in store from companies ranging from Huawei to Motorola and even Oppo. But outside of an implicit agreement that folding phones are going to happen, there’s close to no consensus about what the best form for them actually is. Through various early teases, announcements, and patent filings, we’ve seen a range of different form-factors proposed. Ask four different manufacturers what form their folding phone will take, and you’ll get four very different answers.

Universal may have struck upon a solution in their new patent application for "Systems and Methods for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Path Management," which basically boils down to harnessing guests like hyperactive toddlers on a leash and tethering them to an overhead track, allowing them to walk forward without straying across their neighbors' path.

Universal's idea appears to enable multiple guests to use the attraction simultaneously using a "block zone" method "to ensure that users do not interfere with other users' experiences."

Similar to systems that allow multiple roller coaster trains to be on the same track without crashing into each other, the tether would restrain guests from getting too close to a slower player ahead of them while displaying "VR images of a locked gate, a dense fog, dense foliage, a wall, etc." The tracks could even have multiple branching paths, giving users the illusion of free roaming without fear of flailing into fellow players.

Neighborhood Watch

A new patent application by commerce giant Amazon describes a smart doorbell that would use a camera to monitor users’ neighborhoods using facial recognition technology and report suspicious activity to the authorities. Needless to say, it immediately made privacy advocates uncomfortable

Patent Pending

The patent for the doorbell lists as its inventor James Siminoff, the CEO of home security startup Ring, which Amazon acquired in February 2018.

There’s no guarantee that a patent will become an actual product — remember those goofy VR rollerskates Google filed an application for in November? — but CNN speculated that Amazon’s interest in the doorbell is connected to its social network called Neighbors, which is built on Ring technology and is meant to share information about thieves who steal packages.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked a Bayer patent that covered traditionally bred broccoli adapted for the ease of harvesting.

The patent, which was granted to Monsanto in 2013 and later sold to Bayer, covered plants, seeds and harvested severed broccoli heads that grow slightly higher in order to ease harvesting. An opposition to the patent was originally filed in 2014.

No Patents on Seeds protested the patent by erecting the “largest broccoli in the world” outside of the EPO building in Munich. A petition with around 75,000 signatures supporting opposition to the patent was also handed over.

The EPO introduced new rules for examination in 2017, which mean that patents on animals and plants can no longer be granted if they are derived from conventional breeding using methods like crossing and selection. European law prohibits patents on plant varieties and animal varieties.

This first time the new rules have resulted in the revocation of a patent.

Commenting on the news, Christoph Then of No Patents on Seeds said: “This is an important success for the broad coalition of civil society organisations against patents on plants and animals.”

“Without our activities, the EPO rules would not have been changed and the patent would still be valid. The giant corporations, such as Bayer, Syngenta and BASF, have failed in their attempt to completely monopolise conventional breeding through using patents.”

He added: “But there are still huge legal loopholes as shown in the case of conventionally bred barley. Political decision makers now have to take further action.”